Category: Nonfiction

A Bound Woman Is a Dangerous Thing by DaMaris B. HillPublished: 2019Genre: Poetry, HistoryFormat: HardcoverPages: 192Source: LibraryDates Read: April 5-6, 2019Grade: ASynopsis: From Harriet Tubman to Assata Shakur, Ida B. Wells to Sandra Bland and Black Lives Matter, black women freedom fighters have braved violence, scorn, despair, and isolation in order to lodge their protests. In A Bound Woman Is a Dangerous Thing, DaMaris Hill honors their experiences with at times harrowing, at times hopeful responses to her heroes, illustrated with black-and-white photographs throughout.

For black American women, the experience of being bound has taken many forms: from the bondage of slavery to the Reconstruction-era criminalization of women; from the brutal constraints of Jim Crow to our own era’s prison industrial complex, where between 1980 and 2014, the number of incarcerated women increased by 700%.* For those women who lived and died resisting the dehumanization of confinement–physical, social, intellectual–the threat of being bound was real, constant, and lethal.

The Plantagenets: The Warrior Kings and Queens Who Made England by Dan JonesPublished: 2012Genre: History, NonfictionFormat: PaperbackPages: 534Source: PurchasedDates Read: February 1-25, 2019Grade: A-Synopsis: A stunning achievement that brings one of the most tumultuous and fascinating periods of British history to life, The Plantagenets transports readers to the era of chivalry and the Crusades, the Black Death and the Hundred Years War. The first Plantagenet king inherited a broken, blood-soaked realm from the Normans and transformed it into an empire that would stretch at its peak from Scotland to Jerusalem. His descendants and their fiery queens, including Eleanor of Aquitaine, Richard the Lionheart, Edward II, and King John, shaped England into the country we recognize today and gave it many of the laws, contracts, and bodies of governance—like Parliament and the Magna Carta—that would shape our own nation. (from Goodreads)Continue reading “Book Review: The Plantagenets by Dan Jones”→

1066: The Year of the Conquest by David HowarthPublished: 1977Genre: History, NonfictionFormat: PaperbackPages: 208Source: PurchasedDates Read: January 12-31, 2019Grade: B+Synopsis: Everyone knows 1066 as the date of the Norman invasion and conquest of England. But how many of us can place that event in the context of the entire dramatic year in which it took place? From the death of Edward the Confessor in early January to the Christmas coronation of Duke William of Normandy, there is an almost uncanny symmetry, as well as a relentlessly exciting surge, of events leading to and from Hastings. Continue reading “Book Review: 1066 by David Howarth”→

The Joy of X: A Guided Tour of Math from One to Infinity by Steven StrogatzPublished: 2012Genre: NonfictionFormat: HardcoverPages: 336Source: LibraryDates Read: June 20, 2018 – January 12, 2019Grade: B-Synopsis: Did O.J. do it? How should you flip your mattress to get the maximum wear out of it? How does Google search the Internet? How many people should you date before settling down? Believe it or not, math plays a crucial role in answering all of these questions and more.

Math underpins everything in the cosmos, including us, yet too few of us understand this universal language well enough to revel in its wisdom, its beauty — and its joy. This deeply enlightening, vastly entertaining volume translates math in a way that is at once intelligible and thrilling. Each trenchant chapter of The Joy of x offers an “aha!” moment, starting with why numbers are so helpful, and progressing through the wondrous truths implicit in π, the Pythagorean theorem, irrational numbers, fat tails, even the rigors and surprising charms of calculus. Showing why he has won awards as a professor at Cornell and garnered extensive praise for his articles about math for the New York Times, Strogatz presumes of his readers only curiosity and common sense. And he rewards them with clear, ingenious, and often funny explanations of the most vital and exciting principles of his discipline. Continue reading “Book Review: The Joy of X by Steven Strogatz”→

Queer Eye: Love Yourself, Love Your Life by Antoni Porowski, Bobby Berk, Jonathan Van Ness, Karamo Brown, and Tan FrancePublished: 2018Genre: Nonfiction, Self-HelpFormat: HardcoverPages: 256Source: LibraryDates Read: December 17, 2018 – January 3, 2019Grade: A-Synopsis: Feeling your best is about far more than deciding what color to paint your accent wall or how to apply nightly moisturizer. It’s also about creating a life that’s well-rounded, filled with humor and understanding—and most importantly, that suits you. At a cultural moment when we are all craving people to admire, Queer Eye offers hope and acceptance. After you get to know the Fab Five, together they will guide you through five practical chapters that go beyond their designated areas of expertise (food & wine, fashion, grooming, home decor, and culture), touching on topics like wellness, entertaining, and defining your personal brand, and complete with bite-sized Hip Tips for your everyday quandaries. Above all else, Queer Eye aims to help you create a happy and healthy life, rooted in self-love and authenticity.Continue reading “Book Review – Queer Eye: Love Yourself, Love Your Life by the Fab Five”→

Title: Politics and the English LanguageAuthor: George OrwellPublished: 1945Genre: NFFormat: PaperbackPages: 24Source: OwnDate Read: April 20, 2018Grade: A-Synopsis: ‘Politics and the English Language’ is widely considered Orwell’s most important essay on style. Style, for Orwell, was never simply a question of aesthetics; it was always inextricably linked to politics and to truth.’All issues are political issues, and politics itself is a mass of lies, evasions, folly, hatred and schizophrenia.When the general atmosphere is bad, language must suffer.’Language is a political issue, and slovenly use of language and clichés make it easier for those in power to deliberately use misleading language to hide unpleasant political facts. Bad English, he believed, was a vehicle for oppressive ideology, and it is no accident that ‘Politics and the English Language’ was written after the close of World War II. (Goodreads)